PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Swedish Ordinance on the Limitation of Terms of Protection, Stockholm (1841)

Source: Swensk Författnings-Samling, No. 71, 1841. Kongl. Maj:ts och Riksens Ständers faststälde Tryckfrihets-förordning; Dat. Örebro den 16 Julii 1812. Med de derefter, och sist wid Riksdagen i Stockholm åren 1840 och 1841, af Konungens och Riksens Ständer antagna förändringar. National Archives of Sweden.

Citation:
Swedish Ordinance on the Limitation of Terms of Protection, Stockholm (1841), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: sc_1841

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_sc_1841

Full title:
Royal Majesty's and the Estates of the Realm's Established FREEDOM OF THE PRESS ORDINANCE. Dated Örebro, 16 July 1812. With the subsequent changes, and lastly at the Riksdag in Stockholm in the years 1840 and 1841, adopted by the King and the Estates of the Realm

Full title original language:
Kongl. Maj:ts och Riksens Ständers faststälde TRYCKFRIHETS-FÖRORDNING; Dat. Örebro den 16 Julii 1812. Med de derefter, och sist wid Riksdagen i Stockholm åren 1840 och 1841, af Konungen och Riksens Ständer antagna förändringar

Abstract:
In the mid-19th century Swedish copyright law was regulated in the Freedom of the Press Ordinance of 1812, which merely stated that ‘Any writing is the property of the author or its legal proprietor’. This implied that copyright was to be seen as any other property right and that the ownership of texts was unlimited in time. This changed in 1841 when Sweden passed an addition to the copyright paragraph stating that copyright protection expired if the copyright holder or its heirs did not publish or reissue the works within 20 years. Since the copyright holders were still allowed to republish the work as many times as they wished, the law in practice still allowed for an infinite extension of the copyright protection. This revision was nevertheless principally important since it was the first time that Swedish law acknowledged that literary property needed to be addressed differently from material property. The discussion preceding the revision also introduced the interests of the public in Swedish copyright law for the first time, as it referred to the need to make literature publicly available as an argument for imposing potential limitations on the terms of protection.

1 Commentary:
commentary_sc_1841

Bibliography:
N/A

Related documents in this database:
1810: Swedish Freedom of the Press Ordinance
1812: Swedish Freedom of the Press Ordinance

Author: Charles XIV John

Publisher: P. A. Norstedt & Söner

Year: 1841

Location: Stockholm

Language: Swedish

Source: Swensk Författnings-Samling, No. 71, 1841. Kongl. Maj:ts och Riksens Ständers faststälde Tryckfrihets-förordning; Dat. Örebro den 16 Julii 1812. Med de derefter, och sist wid Riksdagen i Stockholm åren 1840 och 1841, af Konungens och Riksens Ständer antagna förändringar. National Archives of Sweden.

Persons referred to:
N/A

Places referred to:
Stockholm
Örebro

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Estates of the Realm
Supreme Court of Sweden
The National Archives of Sweden
The National Library of Sweden
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
anonymous works
authorship, legal concept of
book trade
books, protected subject matter
censorship, pre-publication
defamation
duration
immoral works
newspapers, protected subject matter
penalties
reprints
reprints
secrecy
translation, right of

Responsible editor: Marius Buning


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